Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Crab Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Line a salad dish with the young and tender leaves of lettuce.
Place the meat of the boiled crabs on top of the lettuce.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mix together the mustard, salt, and red pepper.
Add the egg yolks and mix well with a fork.
Gradually add olive oil until you have a thick, smooth paste.
Thin the mixture with a little vinegar and pour it over the crab.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,356 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,580 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + crabtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and mustard into a thick, smooth paste.
- Olive oil
- Provides fat that, emulsified with the yolks, gives the dressing its richness and body.
- Made mustard
- Helps hold the oil and yolk emulsion together and adds a sharp flavour.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and thins it to a pourable consistency.
- Meat of boiled crabs
- Provides the main protein and savoury flavour of the salad.
The step that matters
Gradually add olive oil. Adding oil too quickly to the yolks can break the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated dressing instead of a thick, smooth paste. Adding it slowly while mixing lets the yolk lecithin surround the oil droplets.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, crab, mustard, pepper, egg, olive, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, crab, mustard, pepper, egg, olive, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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